Month: April 2021

The Baylor Bears and Gonzaga Bulldogs faced off on Monday in Indianapolis, with the two teams combining for the best winning percentage in the history of the NCAA men’s national championship game. Gonzaga entered with an unbeaten record and a chance to make history but, for the vast majority of a 40-minute affair, Baylor was the superior team, and the Bears claimed the title with an 86-70 victory at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Baylor dominated for the lion’s share of the first half, and their strong play began immediately. The Bears were the more physical, energetic team from the opening tip, scoring the first nine points and zooming to an 11-1 lead at the first TV timeout.

Gonzaga, the nation’s leading offensive team, didn’t score until the 16:16 mark and, with projected top-five pick Jalen Suggs in foul trouble, the Bulldogs were floundering. Things didn’t stabilize immediately, either, with Baylor pushing the margin to 21-6.

That was the largest deficit of the entire season for the Bulldogs, and the Bears kept coming, making their first five three-pointers to snatch a 29-10 advantage.

Finally, Gonzaga made their first run, outscoring Baylor by a 10-3 margin to cut the margin to 12, but Baylor then countered to reinstate a 17-point edge. Fortunately for Mark Few’s team, the Bulldogs had the last punch in the first half, using a 9-2 spurt over the last 2:16 to slash the margin to 47-37 at the break.

Gonzaga relied on the free throw line, making 12 of 13 attempts, in the first half, with Baylor generating second-chance opportunities (with nine offensive rebounds) and converting seven three-pointers on 12 attempts. Both teams were able to produce efficient overall offense, but the Bears essentially produced a quality look whenever they wanted, putting the Bulldogs on their heels.

In the second half, Gonzaga did manage to make it a single-digit game, albeit briefly. Gonzaga closed to within 58-49 with 14:30 to go but, seemingly on cue, Baylor put together a 9-2 run that was capped by a three-pointer from Adam Flagler with 12:54 to go.

At that point, Baylor was 10-of-18 from three-point range, with Gonzaga making just 1-of-8 from beyond the arc. That certainly wasn’t the only difference between the two teams, but the 27-point differential was telling in many ways.

Baylor extended its edge to 73-53 with 10:39 remaining, but there was one more (minor) threat from Gonzaga. Corey Kispert connected on a three-pointer with 7:09 to go, cutting the deficit to 75-62, and it would’ve been closer for the Bulldogs if not for a stretch of four missed free throws in five attempts. Still, Baylor was relentless, holding Gonzaga’s offense to just three points in the next four minutes to put the game away once and for all.

Though Baylor endured something of a midseason swoon coming out of a COVID-related pause, they were fantastic throughout the 2020-21 campaign, and Scott Drew’s peaked at a perfect time. They were fantastic defensively, taking Gonzaga out of its typical, free-wheeling style and, on the other end, Baylor strung together a flawless showing.

The Bears finished with 16 offensive rebounds (to just 17 defensive rebounds for the Bulldogs), and that helped to boost their efficiency to an obscene degree. On top of the second-chance opportunities, Baylor connected on 10-of-23 from three-point range, even with cooler shooting in the second half, and they were efficient at the free throw line, making 16 of their 18 attempts.

All-American guard Jared Butler finished with 22 points and seven assists, with fellow standout guard Davion Mitchell producing 15 points, six rebounds, five assists and elite-level defense. MaCio Teague added 19 points, with Adam Flagler contributing 13 points off the bench.

All told, it was a complete effort on the brightest stage for Baylor, and they are a thoroughly deserving national champion as a result. While some attention will undoubtedly be paid to Gonzaga falling one game short of an historic season, Scott Drew’s team was electric in cutting down the nets in Indianapolis.

This offseason, the San Diego Padres rewarded their young superstar shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. with a massive 14-year, $340 million contract extension, locking the 22-year-old sensation up through his prime. Tatis has looked primed to become the next face of Major League Baseball, with his sensational two-way play, power to all fields at the plate as a middle infielder, and the tremendous flair with which he plays the game.

Joyful figures like Tatis are what many believe baseball needs more than anything right now, and the Padres are hopeful that he and Manny Machado can anchor their infield and help lead the Padres into being one of the game’s top teams. On Monday, however, the Padres nightmare came to life when Tatis crumpled to the ground after a big cut at the plate on a strikeout, clutching his left elbow and staying down in considerable pain before being walked back to the clubhouse by the training staff.

It’s hard to see exactly what happens live, but the replays show Tatis appear to over extend his elbow on the follow through and immediately goes to the ground.

Hopefully it is more of a scare than anything, but it certainly didn’t look good. Until a firm diagnosis returns, the Padres, their fans, and MLB fans in general will be hoping for the best for Tatis.

Paul Pierce had, well, let’s just say an interesting weekend. In the wee hours of the morning on Saturday, the Celtics legend and current ESPN analyst went live on Instagram from a house party where there were a number of exotic dancers and Pierce was smoking and drinking and, apparently, having quite the time.

Pierce had some, well, interesting things to say during the IG Live session and once people woke up on Saturday and the videos pulled from his live ended up circulating on social media, he was suddenly a trending topic. It came as little surprise that his antics didn’t sit well with his bosses at Disney, as it was reported on Monday that the two sides had “parted ways,” which is the very nice way of saying he was fired. What made it all the more interesting was that Pierce seemed to be more than alright with losing his job, posting a video to Twitter in which he simply laughed for a couple seconds.

Later, Pierce posted a lengthier video in which he thanked both his supporters and his haters, while promising that bigger and better things are coming.

Pierce isn’t exactly a social media maven, as we learned during the great DeAndre Jordan free agency frenzy of 2015 when he posted an image of a rocket emoji instead of an actual emoji, but also all of this feels a bit too reckless to have been a complete accident. We’ll see what those “bigger and better things” are on the horizon for Pierce and if he has another job lined up, but at least for now we know he’s not taking his sudden ouster from the Worldwide Leader too hard.

After a stretch of 13 losses in 14 games in March, the Toronto Raptors are in desperate need of victories to keep pace in the Eastern Conference playoff chase. Nick Nurse’s team began April with a wild, 53-point victory over the Golden State Warriors but, on Monday, the Raptors faced a more competitive situation against the Washington Wizards. In fact, Toronto trailed by double-digits as the fourth quarter arrived, but the Raptors erased that deficit for good, and they did so in memorable fashion when Gary Trent Jr. knocked down a buzzer-beating three-pointer to secure the victory.

Trent Jr. was forced to go coast to coast, eventually getting to the top of the key with space and time to fire in rhythm. From there, he is a career 40 percent three-point shooter, so it was no surprise to see it fall. He finished with 16 points on 7-of-15 shooting, with no bigger moment than the final shot.

Russell Westbrook gave the Wizards the lead with a three-pointer of his own with 41 seconds left and, when Pascal Siakam committed a charge on the ensuing possession, Washington appeared to be in good shape. Raul Neto then missed a shot that would’ve given the Wizards a three-point lead with 5.5 seconds left, leaving the door open.

Speaking of Neto, he can be seen flying to the floor while Trent Jr. makes his way into shooting position. It is certainly possible that Trent Jr. pushed off but, well, it seems as if Neto tried his very best to sell a call and that effort was not rewarded by the officials. He even seems to express dismay after the final buzzer, but it was simply too late.

With the win, the Raptors improve to 20-30 on the season. They still face an uphill climb, but Toronto also has the feel of a dangerous team when healthy, and they are now just one game out of the final play-in spot (No. 10) in the East.

Congratulations, if you watched Game of Thrones starting with its very first episode, because that means you’re old. The show version of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire saga bowed on HBO on April 17, 2011. A lot has happened since then, if maybe not in the author’s version of Westeros. It’s been so long since it first started airing that Martin only released one new book in the series, and soon after the first season ended, no less. (And there’s no real end in sight for the perpetually AWOL Winds of Winter.) But the show was such a big deal that, to celebrate its 10th birthday, its home network is celebrating for a full month.

As per Entertainment Weekly, starting now, HBO is kicking off what it’s calling “The Iron Anniversary” – an epic mix of new behind-the-scenes documentaries, fan-favorite episodes, giveaways, and other revelries that will be found on HBO Max. The crown jewel comes on April 10, when HBO 2 will go whole hog with a “#MaraThone, airing all 10 episodes from the first season starting at 10am.

The shindigs can be found on HBO Max’s Game of Thrones Spotlight page, which features the above features, as well as a function that points viewers in the direction of other fine HBO programs, such as His Dark Materials and Watchmen. Those are both much-loved shows, but not even Watchmen could come close to the seismic superstardom of Game of Thrones. Then again, people did the opposite of complaining about that one’s capper, didn’t they?

(Via EW)

No matter how great a parent you are and how well you teach your children how to behave, kids are occasionally going to be less-than-pleasurable to be around. They are human, after all. And they are engaged in an intense, years-long process of learning about being human, growing and change rapidly through various phases and stages.

As parents, it can be hard to figure out how to help them through all of that. Especially when they’re pushing our own emotional buttons.

Mom and educator Dr. Chawanna B. Chambers— or “Dr. Chae,” as she goes by on her website—shared a parenting tale from her own life that offers us all a beautiful example of how to teach a child who is seemingly acting disrespectful how to manage their responses. For many parents, a child talking back or being rude is met with immediate anger or sternness—perhaps an instinctual response from their own upbringing or beliefs about respecting our elders.

But for Chambers, her 6-year-old speaking rudely was an opportunity to teach a lesson about our brains and how we can head off a problematic interaction before it starts.

“I noticed that my 6-yo was being a lil rude/curt w/me, so I asked her what was up,” Chambers wrote. “At first, she just looked at me, so I reiterated that I can’t help her if I don’t know what’s wrong.

“Then I asked, ‘Why are you being unkind to me? What happened?’

“She looked at me and said, ‘I don’t know,’ and started crying. I told her, ‘It’s okay. Sometimes mommy just doesn’t feel happy too. You’re not in trouble. I just needed to know how to help.'”

Gold from the get-go. Even just asking the question, “Why are you being unkind to me?” invites a child to think through their thoughts and emotions in a way that doesn’t put them in a space of fear or defensiveness. And having mom reiterate that she understands how it feels to not know why you’re unhappy and share that she wants to help gives her daughter room to do this important work.

“She said, ‘My brain tells me to be rude,'” Chambers went on. “I told her that’s sort of how it happens for lots of people. When our emotions aren’t happy, sometimes we take it out on others even when they don’t deserve it.

“She asked, ‘Wait. Your brain does it too?!’ I told her yes, and then I asked her if I could teach her something that might help. She said yes, so I told her, ‘When you aren’t quite feeling right but don’t want to be mean, you can say, “I’m not feeling my best self; I need a min.”‘”

Empathy. Compassion. Education. Concrete ideas for what to do instead of what they’re doing. It’s like a master class in positive, supportive parenting techniques.

Chambers continued:

“So, we practiced saying that over and over again until she felt better. She gave me a hug and stopped crying. I think about all the ways I *could’ve* responded, particularly a power trip bc ‘I’m the adult,’ but she needed to process something not even about me.”

That right there is such a key thing that’s easy to miss as a parent. So many times when our kids are expressing frustrations in our direction, they have nothing to do with us personally. We are merely a safe space for them to vent, and they may not even know why. That doesn’t mean we should let them speak to us any old way they feel like it in the moment, but it does mean we can utilize that space to help them work through whatever they’re feeling and figure out a different way of expressing themselves.

“Trying to be slower to projection or anger has really given me an opportunity to coach my children on emotional maturity,” Chambers reflected. “Even at 6, she can learn how to challenge her own thoughts. She can learn how her brain works and the best ways to engage w/others.”

Yes. Children are far better at this kind of emotional work than we give them credit for. It takes time and patience, but it pays off in the long run.

With a background in education, Chambers may have a leg up on many of us in terms of understanding child psychology and explaining it on a child’s level, but that doesn’t mean we can’t all do our best to focus on empathy and education in our own parenting.

Not only does this kind of approach help kids learn how to manage their behavior, but it also strengthens bonds between parent and child. When your kiddo knows they can trust you to help them and not hurt them, when they get the message that their feelings are normal and they can learn to manage them, when they see that their mom or dad also have the same struggles they do sometimes and can help them through it, they know they’ve got support.

Our job is to teach them as the humans they are, not train them like animals at obedience school. And most importantly, we teach respect by exhibiting ourselves. When a child behaves in a way that’s contrary to what we expect and what we’ve taught them, it usually means they’re struggling with something. And nothing is more respectful than listening, acknowledging, empathizing, and helping when someone is clearly struggling.

Children learn what they live, as the saying goes. Thank you, Dr. Chae, for offering a beautiful example of what that looks like in action.

The many who worked for Trump during his four cataclysmic years in office are currently struggling to find second acts for their careers, and unfortunately there are only so many pundit spots open at Fox News, Newsmax, and OANN. But none have the infamy of Stephen Miller, the former president’s senior advisor. Widely perceived as a draconian, immigrant-hating white nationalist who, like some monsters, is prone to public embarrassment, he’s been trying to rebrand as just another Republican culture warrior. And when he tried to get the band back together, it only lead to social media-wide mockery.

On Monday, Miller posted a photo of him with his old boss on his poorly followed Twitter account. (Seriously, he has just over 20,000 followers. By contrast, likely doomed Trumpist Matt Gaetz has over one million.) “Just had a terrific meeting with President Trump!” he wrote, though it wasn’t clear what a meeting between two unemployed people with zero power in government was supposed to be about.

Whatever matters they discussed didn’t matter. People just wanted to mock this particular meeting of the minds.

Many singled out Trump’s sad attempt to recreate the Oval Office in a much smaller room in the Florida country club where he now resides.

Some even spotted what looked like a clumsily hidden bottle of Coke, even as the GOP has cancelled the soft drink company for coming out against voter suppression laws in Georgia.

Some joked about what they might have discussed.

Others wondered why they were smiling.

Miller has been busy. On Sunday he launched into a thread about the MLB also coming out against Georgia’s new voter laws, attempting to wax nostalgic for baseball as “the American sport.” People weren’t buying him trying to sound human, even amidst some culture war nonsense.

Some mocked his attempt at moving prose.

Others said they don’t mind him nor others like him from skipping MLB games.

And others reminded us that very few people are seeing Miller’s tweets that aren’t ratioed.

Early on Saturday morning, retired Boston Celtics legend Paul Pierce went live on Instagram and drew a great deal of attention. The images broadcast by Pierce featured a house party of some kind, with dancing, smoking and drinking, and NBA players were almost live-tweeting the action, both as it was happening in real time and once the videos began making the rounds after the fact. At the time, there was certainly speculation that Pierce’s current employer, Disney by way of ESPN, would not be thrilled with what was shown.

In the end, that seems to be the case, as multiple outlets are now reporting that ESPN is parting ways with Pierce.

Pierce’s primary role with the worldwide leader has been as a central piece of NBA Countdown, though he has also appeared on other studio programming like The Jump. Following the Instagram Live, Pierce’s first tweet also grabbed attention, as he wished everyone “good morning” in the late evening hours of Saturday.

At this time, there is no official statement from ESPN or confirmation that the two sides have parted ways. However, all signs point to that being the case, and the next steps for both the network and Pierce will be interesting. Pierce himself seemed to confirm the news with an odd video on Twitter of him just laughing, and insisting “Big Things” are coming soon.

For what it’s worth, Dr. Drew Pinsky is a real doctor. Before he became a media personality, he was even chief resident at a hospital in Pasadena. But like other celebrity docs, like Dr. Phil and poorly received Jeopardy! host Dr. Oz, he has a tendency to traffic in dubious medical claims. Dr. Drew hasn’t handled the pandemic well. He was dragged for comparing it to the flu, only to catch it himself. Now he’s being raked over the coals for saying over-the-top things about so-called “vaccine passports.”

Many in conservative circles have come out against the Biden administration’s suggestion for how to keep Americans safe when not everyone has been vaccinated. Marjorie Taylor Greene called the passports the “mark of the beast,” because of course she did. Dr. Drew doesn’t like them either, though he didn’t make a strong case, and not only because of his loaded language.

“These vaccine passports segregate people and strip them of their freedom to travel internationally,” Dr. Drew tweeted. “Vaccinations are important, and I encourage everyone to get the Covid vaccine, but how would you feel if international travel also required other vaccinations?”

For one thing, travel is already severely restricted due to a highly contagious disease. For another, he doesn’t mention that non-vaccinated people are a public health risk. And yet another: vaccines were already required for travel to certain countries before there was a once-in-a-century pandemic.

A lot of people patiently (or not so patiently) explained this last part to the man with the medical degree.

Vaccines are also, as most medical professionals well know, required for other activities as well.

Others began putting their trust in other so-called doctors.

And others (such as, admittedly, this author) Googled whether Dr. Drew is a real doctor.

Aaron Rodgers is hosting Jeopardy! for the next couple of weeks as the future Hall of Fame quarterback takes a turn behind the podium as the latest guest host on the show. Rodgers has made clear that he isn’t just doing this for fun and wants his time as guest host to serve as a real audition for the permanent role whenever the show gets around to making someone the new full-time host, insisting he can host and play quarterback in the NFL at the same time.

That seems like a long shot, and for now he has to get through two weeks of shows unscathed, which proved to be a bit more difficult than he was maybe anticipating on his first show as host. (As a warning in case you have somehow gotten this far and care about such things, but spoilers ahead if you don’t want to know who wins tonight’s episode just yet.)

During Final Jeopardy, one contestant who knew he was too far behind to catch the leader decided he would take the opportunity to ask Rodgers a pressing question that just about every Packers fan has wanted to ask: Who wanted to kick that field goal?

The field goal in question, of course, is the Packers kicking from the 8-yard line while down 8 with just over two minutes to play against the Bucs in the NFC title game, which they went on to lose by a 31-26 margin after never getting the ball back and having a chance to score. It was a rather baffling move in the moment that got even worse in hindsight as the Packers never got the stop they needed and saw Tom Brady and company go on to the Super Bowl (which they won).

Rodgers’ reaction is sensational, as he just starts chuckling midway through reading the response from our guy Scott, and takes a few seconds to figure out how not to get himself in trouble on national TV. He settles on “that’s a very good question” opting for the most diplomatic response possible and quickly trying to move on. Kudos to Scott for taking the perfect opportunity to break that out because, while he didn’t win, he will live on a viral video forever as the guy that roasted the Packers in front of Aaron Rodgers on Jeopardy!